


Elucidation and Inspiration

by whatwecan



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Translation Matrix Malfunction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-21
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-08-16 12:06:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8101789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatwecan/pseuds/whatwecan
Summary: The translation matrix in the Tardis is broken... you know the rest... oh you don't?  Well come on in and read this fic.





	

Rose eyed the Doctor as he planted his hands firmly on the floor of the console room and hopped up from where he’d been buried for approximately the last hour. His feet hit the grating with a sharp angry rattle and she hid a small smile behind her wrist.

He’d get it sorted, he always does.

“You know Doctor, I think I like you like this. No jacket, sleeves rolled up, it’s sexy.”  
The Doctor just kicked the console in frustration, wincing and hopping a bit on one foot before looking up at her with tight, tense brows and shooting her a wan smile. The dim glow of the Tardis’ back up lights cast stark shadows across his face. Moving to his side, Rose patted him on the shoulder consolingly and the Doctor relaxed a bit as he leaned his head into her arm.

“Not that I don’t find you sexy normally…” Rose blushed, the sound of her secret ringing in the cavernous dome, a surreal, echoing, almost foreign sound. 

The Doctor just looked at her in confusion as she continued in a rush.

“I do, always. But it isn’t the way you look, I mean not just. It’s the way you move, the way you talk, how you tinker with things, so sure of yourself. I love watching you.”

Even now, the way he watched her, his eyes brown and wide as if she was the only thing that mattered, even though she knew time’s steady, stern hands bore down on him every moment of his existence. Bold for once, she rubbed the pad of her thumb against his neck and his lips pressed together in a thin smile.

“I love you Doctor.” It was a whispered confession, a thin, frail rush of air barely strong enough to bend a blade of grass– robust enough to carry the weight of her lead-heavy heart.

The Doctor’s eyebrows just lowered to hood his eyes and he shrugged, dropping his face into his hands. Rose sighed and sat down next to him resting her cheek against his shoulder.

They sat like that for a while, the cool silence like a paper thin sheet of glass between them.

Suddenly the Doctor jerked upright, snapping his fingers and smacking the leather of the seat beside him. Rose grinned at him. He’d figured it out.

Running over to grab his long brown coat, the Doctor began emptying various bits and bobs from his pockets, finally locating his prize and holding it up triumphantly, a small nondescript metal blob, the color of tarnished copper. 

Rose just shook her head and smiled encouragingly.

As the Doctor began working on the strange piece of alien machinery with his sonic Rose amused her self by poking through the random knick-knacks the doctor had dumped out on the jump seat. One in particular caught her eye and she gasped as she held it up to one of the Tardis’ emergency lights for a better look.

It was beautiful, an intricately carved wooden ring with a large opaque pink gem set flush into it’s face. The Doctor’s hand covered hers as he came up behind her and gently lifted it from her hand. He must have heard her murmur of astonishment.

“It’s beautiful Doctor, I wonder where you got it.”

The Doctor contemplated the ring for a moment, before fisting it in his palm and dropping it to his side, extending his other hand and wiggling his fingers in a familiar gesture. Rose smiled and entwined her hand with his, following him with a small skip hop over to the doors of their amazing, if currently a bit worse for wear time-ship.

Rose’s mouth dropped open as the Doctor flung the doors wide. Outside thousands of millions of stars shined and glittered, a tremulous cacophony of white light. Rose could feel her own heart tremble in response, the throaty warble of a tiny songbird delighting in the majesty of dawn.

She squeezed The Doctor’s hand in hers.

“They’re like diamonds Doctor, thank you so much.”

His smile was warm and his eyes soft. The Doctor gestured for her to hold out her hand and slid the ring onto her finger, it’s tight silver grain smooth as she twisted it with the pad of her thumb.

Facing her, the Doctor took both of her hands in his, and began speaking in a solemn almost grave voice. 

Rose shook her head, letting mirth and joy effervesce and sparkle in her eyes. She couldn’t understand a word.

“Diaomum ti ne foreya gan aeous nessta vessum…”

Somehow, it suited him, the Doctor’s mother tounge. It’s lyrical flowing verse somehow lending him an extra sense of grace and ease. Or maybe, Rose mused, it simply revealed an ease he often hid from the world. She blushed as, without intending it, her thoughts turned to how those words would sound whispered in passion, were he ever to clasp her in his arms as something more than a platonic, if slightly overprotective, friend.

The Doctor paused for breath and Rose looked quizzically at his serious expression, the sober determined set of his jaw. He was probably just trying to reassure her that he would pull them through this latest adventure intact.

“Don’t worry,” she reassured him “I’m sure you’ll get the translation thingie fixed.” 

Rose tried to pull away one hand to pat him on the shoulder, but the Doctor just tightened his grasp. His eyes flickering for an instant to the crystal ocean of stars before returning to hers, their depths as dark and mysterious as the eternal night beyond the Tardis’ threshold. 

He spoke again, and uncomprehending, Rose just allowed herself to get lost in his lilt and rhythm. So entranced was she, that it must have been a few moments before she realized that, somehow, once again his words were familiar. 

“…and even though Rose, I know you have no idea what I’m saying, and, let’s be honest, I’ll most likely never work up the courage to say this to you proper, I just want to say I meant those vows I made. And even if you never know it, even if you never put that ring on again, I’ll consider you my wife, the love of my life, and the most perfect, gorgeous being in this whole dumb universe for the rest of my…”

It wasn’t until his mouth dropped open, that Rose realized that hers had too. It wasn’t until his hands began trembling in hers that she felt the cold tracks of tears on her face. It wasn’t until the tentative brush of his lips that Rose realized she’d been drifting, searching. She felt it now, what he’d said about falling through space. But it wasn’t a free fall, not anymore, she’d come home.

The Doctor cupped her cheek as he kissed her, and Rose twined her arms around his neck, unwilling to let him go, even as they separated for a moment, panting for breath.

“Doctor,” she said “I think the Tardis fixed herself.”


End file.
